2014 Buick Verano Convenience on 2040-cars

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Buick announces Ultium-based EV for the Chinese market

Buick will expand its presence in the EV segment by launching a five-seater crossover on the Chinese market before the end of 2022. The model will use the Ultium technology developed by parent company General Motors, and it will be closely followed by another electric car. Official details about the model remain few and far between; we don't even know what it will be called yet. The company published an image that shows an electric platform topped by the outline of a crossover, and it clarified power will come from a battery pack with cells "tailored for China." The battery-powered Buick will also be available with the Super Cruise technology found in other General Motors models. The outline shares more than a passing resemblance with the heavily-camouflaged test mule that our spies spotted testing earlier in 2022, but it's difficult to tell whether we're looking at the same car. Trademark filings suggest Buick has several electric cars in the pipeline. While the crossover won't be the first electric Buick — the Velite 6 MAV went on sale in China in 2019 — executives have high hopes for it. To that end, the company will open up to 58 Buick EV City showrooms and over 600 Buick NEV Zones across China. It's also working with "mainstream third-party charging operators" to make over 400,000 charging points available throughout China by the end of 2023. Buick will release additional details about its upcoming electric model before the end of 2022, and deliveries are scheduled to start in the first half of 2023 on the Chinese market. As of writing, it's too early to tell whether the EV will join the Envista on its trip across the Pacific or stay in China. Looking ahead, the brand announced plans to release a second electric car built around Ultium technology before the end of 2023.

We want this Buick Regal wagon rumor to be true

The car we know in the US as the Buick Regal is sold as a Vauxhall/ Opel Insignia in Europe, where it's offered in four-door sedan, five-door liftback, and wagon body styles. Call it a case of wanting what we can't have, but we like the last two body styles a lot. Based on a report from a Buick/ GMC dealer meeting in Austin, one of them could be coming to the US soon. According to a poster identified as 97GreenRS on the forums at GM Inside News, GM showed dealers the 2018 Buick Enclave, Regal, and Regal GS, as well as the 2018 GMC Terrain, and then confirmed it would offer the Regal wagon here in the US. While that wouldn't normally be all that much to go on, we know Buick has been toying with the idea of a wagon for some time. A Regal-badged wagon was spotted way back in 2011. More recently, we reported on a trademark filing for "Tourx" and "Regal Tourx," which suggest a long roof (Tour) and all-wheel drive (x). If the Regal wagon arrives alongside the base sedan and GS as a 2018 model, we'd expect a debut within the next 15 or so months. That would place it right at the beginning of the 2017 auto show season, which starts next September in Frankfurt, Germany. With that in mind, it seems possible the new Regal would debut first as an Opel Insignia before appearing at a US show like Los Angeles or Detroit, although there's a lot of speculation going on there. We just want to see "Buick" and "wagon" in the same sentence again. Related Video:

Junkyard Gem: 1962 Buick Electra 225 4-Door Sedan

Buick built its first Electras as 1959 models, with Electra production continuing unabated through 1990 (after which the Park Avenue trim level took over as the model name, much as the Malibu trim level designation had shoved aside the Chevelle model name in 1978). Some of the handsomest Electras were the second-generation models, built for the 1961-1964 model years, and today's Junkyard Gem is one of those cars. I'd always assumed that the Buick Electra took its name from the daughter of Clytemnestra and Agamemnon in Greek mythology, because the people who named cars back then were forced to read Euripides and Sophocles as undergrads. In fact, the car was named after Electra Waggoner Bowman Biggs, a Texas heiress and sculptor who married the brother-in-law of Harlow Curtice, who ran the Buick Division before being promoted to president of General Motors in 1953. How did she feel when the last Electra rolled off the assembly line in 1990? The junkyard is full of history, if you know where to look. The 1959-1960 Electra had enormous tailfins, angled something like the ones seen on the same-year Chevrolet Impalas. This Electra generation ditched the fins but kept much of the general Space Age spirit of its predecessor. The Electra lived on the same platform as the Cadillac DeVille and Oldsmobile 98 from start to finish, and it was the most expensive Buick available in 1962. The MSRP of this one was $4,051, or about $41,462 in 2023 dollars. The engine in this one was present when it arrived at U-Pull-&-Pay, but a junkyard shopper grabbed it within a couple of days of arrival. It would have been a 401-cubic-inch (6.5-liter) "Nailhead" V8, rated at 325 horsepower and a whopping 445 pound-feet of torque (keep in mind that these are gross, not net, power numbers). The Nailhead's small valves meant that it wasn't much good for high-rpm use, but its big torque was perfect for moving two-ton land yachts. The final Nailheads were installed in 1966 Buicks. Every production Electra ever built came with an automatic transmission, and the 1959-1963 models received the extremely smooth and alarmingly inefficient Dynaflow (known as the Dual-Path Turbine Drive for 1962). Originally developed for use in the 1943 M18 Hellcat tank destroyer, the Dynaflow was considered a two-speed automatic but drove more like a CVT with two selectable drive ranges.